Color theory, under this barbaric name hides a playful concept that will help you to arrange your interior according to your style. We explain the basics to you and give you tips for skillful interior design. Color theory is divided into three parts: color perception, color psychology, and dyes. Arranging your interior to feel good is important so we explain the psychological effects of colors, the fundamentals of color perception and how to use them in interior design color theory.

How Do We See The Colors?

Colors are certainly transported by light, but it is above all thanks to our perception that they appear. This perception depends not only on us, but above all on what surrounds us. for example: if you see a light green car in the setting sun, you see the light green and orange of the sun. Your brain can separate the two because it knows what it’s supposed to see. but if you look at part of the car through a cardboard tube, and therefore cannot see the surroundings, the color of the car will be salmon. Indeed, in this case, the brain cannot separate the different light waves from each other. Light waves and their level of reflection: if all the light on an object is reflected on our retina, we see white, if everything is absorbed, we see black.

Subtractive Color Synthesis

The mixing of colors that we learn in school and as painters do is called subtractive color synthesis by mixing the three primary colors yellow, magenta and cyan, we get the other colors. Here, we can also see the secondary colors, purple, orange and green and the tertiary colors, red-orange, yellow-orange, blue-green.

Swiss artist and bauhaus professor johannes itten (1888 – 1967) developed the famous color wheel based on these mixtures. in this circle, we also see the colors distributed by heat: for cold colors, this palette covers everything from blue-violet to green, while the panel of warm colors goes from purple to yellow.

So, as with painters, this simple principle should suffice. the color palette can be extended by adding black and white to the mixtures. in nature you can not only find yellow, magenta and cyan but also ultramarine blue, turquoise, etc. Absolutely not. Services like Foyr Neo offers a great support in here.

Play On Contrasts

If you want to have a rather simple and tone-on-tone interior, you can use shades of your favorite color by mixing it with black or white to achieve its light and dark hues for a more daring arrangement, there are some tips to easily play with contrasts.

Complementary Contrast

Take a look again at color circle: complementary colors are those that oppose each other in the circle and exhibit the greatest variety of hues. This is the case for yellow and purple, blue and orange as well as red and green. The advantage of complementary colors: they mutually reinforce their lighting power. The least is mixing them too much will result in gray or black, so always be careful when using them.

Paint a wall in your favorite color and place small pieces of furniture in front of it like dressers or coffee tables in its complementary color. wall accessories in complementary colors like posters or clocks also bring light to your space.

The Quantitative Contrast

each shade of color has its own illuminating power and intensity, which is why you should be careful not to have too large a ratio for a harmonious whole. In the case of blue and orange, for example, a ratio of 3: 1 is sufficient.